Singapore F1 Grand Prix Night Race

My initial plan for the F1 weekend to catch it on TV in my boxers with an ice cold beer was shelved when one of my friends gave me two extra walkabout passes for Friday (practice) and Saturday (qualifiers) as he was fortunate to obtain grandstand access. Met up with another friend on both days to catch the live action. It was a shutter-free outing for me as I decided to leave my camera at home and just enjoy the Formula One Grand Prix atmosphere.

Day One:

This was taken along the Padang (near Gate 4) while the next one's at the corner of the Padang.

We then went on a walkabout to the Marina Bay area...

and the Esplanade Drive.

Day Two:

We went in about past 5pm and were in time to catch the Porsche Carrera qualifiers.

We then made our way to Gate 3 (near Raffles City) to catch the practice session at 7pm.

We then went back to the Padang area to catch the rest of the practice session.

There was some time in-between for the qualifiers so we took a walk around the esplanade area for a breather and came across this group of Samba dancers and percussionists.

They got everyone worked up to a fever pitch during half time with their performance near the hawker stalls...

Then it was back to the Padang to catch the qualifying round.

Damn, that was fun! Now my legs are aching from all the walking about. Thanks Jeff for the passes for both days! :)

The very ironic Weekend Shootout

The girls next door taking a break after a day of rigorous shooting (left to right): Lynn, Chel and Hazel

For this weekend I joined a group of Club Snap members for a shoot titled "Girl Next Door" which took place on the roof garden of the Esplanade. Midway through the shoot, the organisers were approached by security and told that the Esplanade was private property and that we were not allowed to shoot on the premises unless prior approval was sought.

Some of us were quite baffled as to this ruling as personally, I've seen tour groups and everyone else go up to the roof garden to take group pictures or to capture the skyline. Plus, there were no signs saying "no photography" being displayed anywhere around the premises.

Plus, with the Esplanade being an arts and cultural performing centre, what's the deal of being so ironically anal? It's wasn't like we were doing a commercial shoot; it was a gathering of hobby photographers getting together to do a shoot to improve and work on our skills and techniques. Or did some of our lenses look like bazookas capable of inflicting tremendous mass destruction upon those so-call durian domes of yours? ;p

Well, as time was of the essence since the models were hourly paid the organisers had to quickly move the shoot to the transition area between the connecting esplanade corridor and Citylink Mall. Plus, the rain didn't make things any easier.

All in all, it was a dramatic yet fun shoot as I got to experiment with some old school manual lenses. Will be uploading some of the photos to my Flickr page in about a day or two.